Minnesota Newspapers Reportage

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Saint Paul Pioneer Press, May 10 1915.

Armenians Appeal to Wilson for Aid

President Is Urged to Intercede to Prevent Massacre by Turks.

An appeal was made to President Wilson yesterday by Armenian citi-zens of the Twin Cities to intercede in behalf of their fellow citizens in the old country who are said to be in im-mediate danger of massacre at the hands of the Turks.

Mass Meeting Held.

A mass meeting was held at Arcan-um Hall, Fourth and St. Peter streets, and a resolution adopted to the ef- fect that the President should be ap-pealed to as the head of the greatest neutral power in the world to prevent a massacre, which the Armenians fear will be as appalling as the one com-mitted by the Turks in 1895.

All Over United States.

The meeting yesterday was the re-sult of an appeal from Armenian of-ficials in the old country asking that meetings be held in all cities of the United States.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press and Saint Paul Dispatch, May 16 1915

Seeks Aid for Armenians

New York Man Attempting to Form Branch in St. Paul of a National Association

To help the families of about 30,000 Armenians massacred recently by Turks and other sufferers in Armenia on account of the general European warfare, a national relief association is being o[r]ganized in the United States.

Howard C. Ives of New York was in St. Paul last week and enlisted the support of a number of men, whose names are to be announced as soon as the organization work throughout the country is completed.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Monday, August 16, 1915

Armenians go to Fight

Twelve Leave St. Paul to Join Countrymen on Way to Europe.

Another delegation of Armenian vol-unteers left St. Paul last night for New York, where they will join vol-unteers from all parts of the United States and go to Europe to fight for their country. Practically all of the soldiery now opposing the Turks in Turkey are Armenian volunteers, many of whom formerly lived in the United States. The delegation which left last night consisted of twelve former St. Paul residents. The first party of twenty-five volunteers left St. Paul several weeks ago.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Tuesday, September 7, 1915

Save the Armenians

That the denunciation of the Turks as bloodthirsty villains has been de- cidedly overdone in the Christian na- tions of the world and not least in the United States, is the testimony of those who have lived and traveled among them. Americans in Constanti-nople are at one in their assertions that they much prefer the Turk to the Greek or the Russian. He is more re-liable and gentler-hearted by nature. His friendship is prized and however alien to American thought his ideals may be, the Turk is, they say, loyal to them. He lives up to his Koran better than the American lives up to his Bible.

But the Turk, like every other na-tional, has his enmities, his enemies. And he pursues them with a relent- lessness and a mercilessness which are appalling. The Armenian, it happens, is and always has been the Turk's particular bete noir, his pet aversion. As the Dispatch's Rome correspondent lately revealed, the Turkish govern- ment and army are persecuting the Armenians in a manner calculated to make the blood run cold. The Chris- tian subjects of the sultan have, by an imperial decree, been interned for the period of the war; and this is equiv- alent, so Correspondent Mowrer says, to a proclamation of extermination.

Thus far in the war President Wil- son has refrained strictly from inter-ference with any of the belligerents so long as they did not injure the lives or property of Americans. But there will be many of opinion that he should at least protest to the Turkish gov- ernment against a continuation of the cruel torturings and massacres of Armenians, one of the most unfortu- nate peoples on the face of the earth, who are in danger of complete ex- termination through no fault of their own.

The Journal-Gazette, Thursday, September 9, 1915.

St. James, Watonwan County, Minnesota

According to reports from the war line of Europe, the people in paying especial attention to the suffering of the Belgian people have overlooked to a great extent the sufferings of a race which greatly exceeds that of the Belgians. The Armenians in Turkey have been deported from their native land into the deserts with very little food and a still smaller chance of ever remaining alive so that they may re-turn. A movement has been started in New York to raise funds for the relief of the Armenians, many influ-ential business men being at its head.

The Winona Independent Thurs. Sept. 23, 1915.

Winona, Winona County, Minnesota

Bringing Armenians to America

The Turk still persecutes the Christian Armenians, as he has done from time immemorial. And the present persecution is said to surpass all previous atrocities.

It is estimated that since last April from 300,000 to 700,000 Ar-menians have died from massacres, starvation and disease. The Turkish government has been carrying out a systematic and heartless deportation, seemingly with the purpose of de-stroying the race. In extensive re-gions the whole Armenian population has been expelled, women have been outraged and sent to Turkish harems, men and boys have been driven into deserts, families have perished by thousands of hunger and exhaustion.

The government gives the spur-ious excuse that "the Armenians are spies and revolutionists." But when the Austrian ambassador asked En-ver Pasha, the Turkish war minister, why they were so cruelly treated, he replied, "Because it amuses us."

The American ambassador has in-terested himself in the matter and proposed a plan to solve the Armen-ian problem once for all. He suggests bringing the surviving Armenians to this country and settling them on our vacant land.

"The United States," he says, "might be the Moses to lead the Ar-menian people out of bondage. They could be put in the unsettled regions of the western states, in parts of Washington, eastern Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and California. They are a clean, industrious, intelligent race, and best class of immigrants, farmers and laborers, eager for education."

He has asked and received the approval of the Turkish officials for his plan, and submitted it to Wash-ington, but no action has yet been taken.Ambassador Morgenthau suggests that each state needing settlers raise a fund and send a ship to Asia Minor to bring the Armenians. It might cost as much as $5,000,000 altogeth-er. There are 500,000 who need help, he says, and they could be brought to America for $100 apiece.

It would be a great and worthy act of philanthropy. It remains to be seen, however, whether any of the states will turn philanthropists. If the race is saved by deportation to America, it will probably be through generosity.

Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Thursday, September 30, 1915.

Armenians Ask for Divine Help.—Headline.
Having given up all hope, perhaps, of obtaining any from the American people.

Pathetic Armenia

Besought to intercede with his gov-ernment and through it with the Turks in behalf of the Armenians, Ambassa-dor von Bernstorff waved the whole matter aside by a sweeping assertion that the tales of Armenian massacres are pure moonshine.

Yet the evidence is all the other way. It is hard to believe that the state- ments of Armenians on the ground, who testify that a half million of their brothers and sisters have been cruelly done to death and 300,000 more driven into the desert, there to wander aim-lessly and die of starvation, are manu-factured out of whole cloth. And the witnessing of returned American missionaries bears out the stories of repulsive Turkish atrocities among the people they so cordially hate.

President Wilson has consistently re-fused to put the neutrality of this na-tion in jeopardy by entering a protest against reported atrocities in Belgium or Poland, but there would be none to criticize if he made an exception in this instance. And are the purses of American citizens so depleted by the other charitable demands made upon them that they contain no largesse for the relief of the helpless and sorely stricken Armenians who remain unpro-tected in their native land?

The Owatonna Tribune November 19, 1915.

The Turk must be given credit for one thing at least. He doesn't claim the Lord as an ally to his horrible atrocities.